Stage Door: "Six Degrees of Separation" Revived

Stage Door bringing you intermittent theater reviews when we manage to get there. Here's Nathaniel R

It's so basic to binge plays during Tony season as opposed to a more sensible and committed once-a-month diet of live theater. Alas, just as the more familiar mainstream obsession of the Oscar circus encourages studios to backload their releases to the last quarter of the year, most of the "big" theater shows open as late as they can for Tony consideration. This makes April and May a madhouse of theater-going for those who care about such things. Because most of the musicals are too expensive, I've been catching up with the plays. We've already covered The Little Foxes (a must see) and the Pulitzer-winning economic tragedy Sweat. So let's talk Six Degrees of Separation nominated for 2 Tonys: Best Revival of a Play and Best Leading Actor (Corey Hawkins).

"Chaos, control. Chaos, control. You like, you like?"

That's Stockard Channing's most sweetly funny line reading (among thousands of exquisite ones) in the 1993 movie adaptation of this stage classic. That was also, roughly, my reaction to the Broadway revival with Allison Janney, John Benjamin Hickey, and Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton), taking over the roles Channing, Donald Sutherland, and Will Smith played onscreen...

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Stage Door: "The Little Foxes" doubles The Lovely Laura Linney

Nathaniel R on one of the season's biggest Tony nominees and the most important for Actressexuals

Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes first debuted on the New York stage in 1939 with instantly classic characters, most notably the spiteful Regina Giddens and mousy drunk Birdie Hubbard, who Regina's brother married for her considerable fortune. The show was a hit and immediately scored a classic film version, released in 1941. In the intervening years the show seemed to disappear from the public consciousness a wee bit, despite being revived several times. It didn't help that the awesome 1941 film version was out of print for a long stretch. It's always a treat for fans of actresses since the roles are tailor made for starpower divas...

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Hello, Dollies... it's the Tony Nominations for 2017

by Nathaniel R

Oh hello Tony*, well hello Tony. It's so nice to have you back where you belong...

*Short for Antoinette, don'cha know

Christopher Jackson (Hamilton's original "George Washington") and musical comedy genius Jane Krakowski, both nominees last season, announced the 2017 Tony nominations this morning. Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 leads the pack with 12 nominations with Hello Dolly! close behind with 10. It's usually an original musical that leads. That's a result of the built-in advantage of having more categories devoted to them. Musicals have all the same categories as the plays but also choreography, orchestrations, score, and book. Musical revivals don't ever qualify for all four of those extra musical categories but sometimes two of them. A Dolls House Part 2 leads the original play nominees with 8 nominations and August Wilson's Jitney and Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes lead the play revivals with 6 bids each.

The nominees are...

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There's a link in my soup

This is Just My Face is on sale nowNPR Gabourey Sidibe has a book out, now "This is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare" (great title). It's about her rise to fame, body image, and being confused with her fame-making character in Precious which she finds both frustrating and powerful
Time Out New York publishes its own TONY* nominations. Get it, their initials are TONY. Not to be confused with the actual Tony Award nominations which are due tomorrow to honor the best of Broadway. Consider this their "should be nominated" article
The Retro Set looks at the new documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai, narrated by Keanu Reeves, and now available to stream on Netflix. Can't wait to watch this. 

Deadline republished an interesting history of the making of Silence of the Lambs. I didn't know that the project started with Gene Hackman who was going to direct and star. 
Variety shared a really good interview with Geena Davis. I love what she says about the gender neutral movement with some awards bodies, combining male and female actors into the same category. It's a terrible idea and Geena eloquently explains why
Playbill Chita Rivera flashes back to her West Side Story audition in the 1950s, the show that put her on the map
Awards Daily looks at the prospects for Limited Series Actor... a far more shallow field than its Actress counterpart this year but at least that means its looking good for Riz Ahmed and Ewan McGregor
Playbill Come From Away, a new Broadway musical that's expected to do very well in tomorrow's Tony nominations, is getting its own documentary feature called Come From Away: From Gander to Broadway. It's the true story of a group of strangers diverted into a small town after the 9/11 terrorist attacks grounded airplanes.

Finally...
Interview has Kate Hudson interview her mom Goldie Hawn. It starts enjoyably silly and familial but gets deep into "mindfulness." Goldie is almost back onscreen (Snatched) after a 15 year retirement (that they're somehow calling a "hiatus"). Love this bit about how therapy (which she started around the time of Laugh-In) helped her keep sane despite becoming a household name in her early 20s:

I realized that the way people see me, as a star, has nothing to do with me. It's like a Rorschach test, like I am something they can identify with, learn to love, learn to hate, learn to resent ... but I gave it back to them. So if somebody said to me, "Oh, I love you!"—that makes me happy to see them happy, but I wouldn't take it in as something that builds my ego. And that's how I stabilized myself. 

Have a lovely Monday, everyone. How do you plan to "stabilize" yourself this week?

Wish You Were Linked

Pajiba on the staggering popularity of Adam Sandler movies on Netflix
EW super cute unseen photos from the production of La La Land (it's on DVD very soon)
THR a Richard Gere profile on the new indie phase of his career and why he isn't in the big studio pictures anymore
i09 a tour of Marvel Studios with peeks at all six movies in various stages of production
The Guardian on the making of the wonderful British comedy Wish You Were Here (1987) for its 30th anniversary. God, Emily Lloyd was sensational in that. Remember her? The '87 Oscar Actress lineup was special but I still missed her there.

Tracking Board Bill Condon who did the James Whale biopic Gods and Monsters is in talks to direct Universal's remake of Whale's Bride of Frankenstein. Shouldn't he feel queasy about this as a fan? 
Awards Daily on the TV Drama Series Actress race. Will it be Claire Foy, Keri Russell, or...? 
Variety Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will feature five, yes five post-credit scenes. Are we really still counting these in the running time? It's probably time to acknowledge them for what they are: commercials. 
The Guardian they're still planning a sequel to Labyrinth (1986)? What is the point? (sigh) 
Coming Soon. Is King Kong in the public domain all of a sudden or something. Hot on the heels of Kong Skull Island there's an unrelated TV series in the works on the big ape and his home island
Coming Soon Taraji P Henson is now trying her hand as an action lead. Proud Mary about a hitwoman with a job gone wrong is now filming 

Theatahhh People
Theater Mania Tony/Oscar winner Kevin Spacey will host the Tony Awards, claiming he was "their 15th choice"
Playbill Sutton Foster is a new mom!
Playbill The complete cast recording of Groundhog Day starring Andy Karl (Rocky, Twentieth Century). He's headed for another Tony nod for sure. I attended opening night and he was terrific. I wish I got invited to more opening nights because it was jampacked w/ celebs: Anna Wintour, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kate Burton, Hope Davis, lots of people I half recognized (as my friend StinkyLulu who I went with would say "30% famous")... and in my row Christian Slater! 
Broadway Blog If you're near St Louis, you should check out The Tennessee Williams Festival May 3rd-7th. It sounds amazing